Jesus practiced what he preached. He said:
You have heard it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you [Matthew 5:43-44].
Jesus lived as He preached. Others cursed Him, but He blessed them in return. Others hated Him, but that didn’t stop Him for still dying for them. Others persecuted Him, but He prayed for His Father to forgive them. That’s how Jesus lived and died.
But what Jesus did doesn’t stop with Him. For God calls His people to be the face, the light of Christ in this world. God calls you to follow in Jesus’ steps. Peter states it bluntly: “This is what you were called to do.”
But before we can be the face of Christ in this world, we must first have His divine life within us. That first happens when God the Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, calls you out of spiritual darkness. Jesus, through the Spirit He has sent, finds you when you are spiritually lost, wandering in every direction but toward the one, true God. Jesus called–and continues to call–you out of darkness.
On this side of heaven, this continued call out of darkness never stops. That’s because, to us, darkness often seems like light. It may even feel good. It may even feel right. But it’s wrong. And what gets us in trouble all the more is that sheep, which is how Scripture describes us, follow their feelings. That’s how they lose their way.
The core of our sin is not in what we say or do. They just reveal what’s inside us. The core of our sin is our feelings inside us. It feels right to make ourselves to be like God, to make ourselves into a false idol. That was the sin of Adam and Eve.
But Jesus is different. He practices what He preaches. And in doing that, Jesus brings substance to His preaching. Many reviled Him. They abused, insulted, and mocked Him. But Jesus took it all and did not pay them back. He did not revile them in return. He suffered silently, and He uttered no threats.
Jesus was Love in the flesh–even when He faced pure hatred. And what does Love do when He faces hatred? He looks at such hatred with love, not hate. For hatred cannot be overcome by hate. Only fools who follow their feelings think it can. Only love can overcome hatred.
But let’s be real: It’s scary to follow in Jesus’ steps. The steps of Jesus leave bloody footprints. The steps of Jesus are the steps that lead to suffering and death. Those are usually steps we try to avoid, not those we want to serve as an example!
Our Lord doesn’t call us to take the wide and easy path. And while we are here, still saddled with our sinful flesh, we will suffer. This is the lot of life in this fallen world, whether Christian or non-Christian. Because we are fallen beings, we won’t experience, here, the pure bliss and joy that we will have in eternity. Living in a sin-ruined world will always have suffering. There’s no way around it.
But Christ has called you to live a life different from the rest of the world; perhaps, even different from what you ever imagined. He has called you live a life denying yourself and loving those whom He places in your path. He has called you to follow Him, to follow His steps, carrying the crosses He has given you, even following Him when it might lead to death.
Now, the world may hate you for being the face of Christ in this world. Why is that? It’s not complicated: the world hated Christ. The world will always see His path as a foolish path to take. After all, Jesus went to the cross of death, even as a sheep goes to the slaughter. All the while, Jesus didn’t complain but, instead, He loved those who cursed Him. He bore the iniquity of all, even those who condemned Him to die. By His stripes, we are healed.
This is how Peter says it: “When [Jesus] was reviled, he did revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. Instead, he entrusted himself to the One who judges fairly.” On the cross, Love overcame hate. Through Jesus, God restored His relationship with humanity, not counting our sins against us. As surely as He died, He bore all sins of all sinners of all time. As surely as Jesus rose from the dead, God has forgiven and blotted out every sin of every sinner of all time.
That’s the Gospel. You hear such truth in the Good Shepherd’s voice, calling His sheep to safety. That’s the voice that drives the wolf away. The Gospel points us to where, and when, Jesus took our sins into His body on the cross. That’s why the Gospel brings death to sin and a new life of righteousness. That’s why Paul said this to the congregation at Corinth, “While I was with you, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
And so our life is one of dying to sin and living in righteousness. What’s dying to sin? It’s receiving God’s forgiveness. For that’s what faith does: it receives. Having sorrow because of your sin, and trusting that God forgives you, is what it means to die to sin. Sin then can’t touch us, for we’re forgiven. We are dead to it.
Dying to sin and living in righteousness always go together. For God doesn’t forgive sin so we can sin all the more. He, instead, forgives us to be righteous.
But how does a sinner live a righteous life? He dies to sin, that’s how. He confesses his sin and is absolved. He returns to his baptism every single day. By dying and rising every day in holy baptism, he dies to sin and rises to righteousness.
This is how the Small Catechism teaches us that truth.
What does such baptizing with water mean?
It means that the Old Adam in us, with all its evil deeds and desires, is to be drowned and die by daily sorrow and repentance. Day after day, a new man is to emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Where is this written?
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: “We were, therefore, buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” [Romans 6:4].
That we sin, sometimes not even realizing it, should fill us with remorse. That we have responded to insult with insult should make us sad. God calls us not to pay others back for the sins they’ve committed against us. It should bother us when we fail to mirror the patience of our Lord Jesus. That’s what it means to sorrow over our sins.
Repentance is sorrow and faith. We believe. We believe that Jesus took our sins into Himself on the cross. We believe that, by His stripes, we are healed. We believe that God, because of Jesus, forgives our sins and grants us eternal life. We believe that Jesus, as the Apostle Peter tells us, is our true Shepherd and Overseer.
Faith is not our achievement; it’s not our decision. Faith is receiving what God gives. Faith is believing God when He tells us the Gospel, for faith is the only way to receive God’s promises. He says it. We believe it.
Peter calls Jesus the shepherd and overseer of our souls. The word pastor means “shepherd.” As a shepherd feeds the flock under His care, so does a pastor.
Jesus is also our overseer. Scripture uses the words “pastor” and “overseer” interchangeably. For a pastor is an overseer, and an overseer is a pastor. The same man who feeds the flock watches over the flock to protect it against wolves.
Jesus is the true pastor. Jesus is the true overseer. He’s the One who bore our sins. He’s the One who feeds us with the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the One who watches over us and guides us into the paths of righteousness. His pastors are no more than His voice and hands. Jesus is the true servant, who gave His life as a ransom for us all.
The way that Jesus lived and died shows that we have a shepherd who understands our suffering. In Him, we have something greater than all this world can offer–we have a shepherd who lived the life of a sheep. He is the shepherd who allowed the wolf to kill Him instead of us. This shepherd, Jesus, considers the life of a single sheep so precious that He lived the life of a sheep and died its death.
Yes, we need a shepherd–but not just any shepherd. For not just any shepherd will do. We need the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. For He, the sinless One, gave His life that we may live. And so He is worthy to feed, protect, and guide us. That’s the reality that enters our ears in the pure preaching of the Gospel!
Jesus, our Shepherd, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is our Shepherd, and so we lack nothing. He brings us lie down in green pastures and takes us to the quiet waters. He leads us in paths of righteousness, feeding us with His body and giving us His blood to drink. He even blesses us, although we still sin every day.
So, what more could our Shepherd have done for His flock than what He has done? Nothing, nothing at all, for He has done that which is most essential: giving us His life in His death and saving us in body and soul through His resurrection. This is the Gospel of our Lord. Amen.
